I heard an interesting presentation by Chris Murphy today. He came to speak for an association I am part of at the college, Young Entrepreneurs Association. He is a businessman who has owned 16 companies in different industries. He also lectures and has written a book. Here is an article a paper did on him this month.
http://www.charlotte.com/business/moneywise/story/260641.html

It was a great speech and was very motivational. There were some key ideas I came away with. He brought up how there is often a lot of pessimism from people around the entrepreneur instead of support. This can be faced and re-enforce the idea.

He mentioned how some great ideas are just improvements or solve problems for existing products and services.

He talked about how the culture or system of universities is more geared toward getting students ready for working for the companies instead of taking the risks and starting businesses. To paraphrase, you are asked from an early age, what are going to be? It progresses through high school, then college where you are prepped with resumes and interviews as the pressure to work for companies increases. Of course not everyone can be an entrepreneur but it wouldn't help to have more classes on it, especially at my university.

He mentioned outsourcing and I think implied that the US could be slipping away from entrepreneurship or falling behind. More and more things are outsourced. He mentioned fast food drive through orders being outsourced out of the country. Here is an article on that.


http://www.sharedxpertise.com/file/2000/want-fries-with-outsourcingmcdonalsa-experimenting-with-outsourcing-drive-through-orders.html
Read the rest of this entry >>

Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Provida SA (PVD) is not the most exciting company but it may be good for an investment. The business isn't complicated. From Yahoo! Finance
"provide private pension fund administration and related services in the Republic of Chile. Its services include collection for individual capitalization accounts, voluntary savings accounts, voluntary pension savings, life and disability benefits, investment services, and accounts administration. The company also holds investments in private pension fund administrators operating in Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic."

I found this company, forgotten, unloved, months ago in a screen. It throws off a good bit of its robust free cash flow with a dividend it has been paying for years. The dividend yield right now is about 7%. It only has a $779 million market cap which I think may have allowed it to skid under the radar earlier. Margins are great of course due to the business it is in. Shareholder equity has grown year over year for at least five years.



Read the rest of this entry >>

Altria, after recently spinning off Kraft is planning to spin off its international division Philip Morris International.
SEC Filing
This will allow more focus on the international division which is growing a lot faster than the U.S. My favorite tobacco is Reynolds American (RAI) that is also one of my Companies for the Long Run with its steady dividend payouts. The dividend yield is just above 5% now. Reynolds "Camel" brand is one of the companies and industries best brands and still has a lot of potential. Though I like many large cap stocks, I don't believe in buying them at a slight discount. I feel the best way to purchase large-caps and mega-caps is when they have a huge discount to intrinsic value. This mostly only occurs when fear or short-term set-backs punish the stock to the point it is an obvious contrarian investment.

Why so picky about large-caps? If you buy them fairly or slightly undervalued they simply don't have the stock appreciation potential of buying a fairly or undervalued small-cap. It is a fact that smaller companies earnings grow faster and as a result so do the stocks. The large-caps in the S&P 500 today were once great stocks to own in their infancy. Now they grow much slower as do their stocks.
Read the rest of this entry >>